DOCSLIB.ORG

The Undergraduate and the Harvard Library, 1877-1937

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Undergraduate and the Harvard Library, 1877-1937 The undergraduate and the Harvard Library, 1877-1937 The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Lovett, Robert W. 1947. The undergraduate and the Harvard Library, 1877-1937. Harvard Library Bulletin I (2), Spring 1947: 221-237. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37363315 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA ' The Undergraduate and the Harvard Libr;:1ry,1877-1937 ETvVEEN 1877 and 1937 the 'Harvard Library grew from a collection of 414, 2_1 5 volumes ~d pa1nphlets, the b~lk of them kept in a building already forty years old and open only during daylight hours, to a collection of 3,863, 1 50, scattered for convenience in many placest but the greater part housed in a re1atively modem building, kept open until ten at night~1 Of course the undergraduate enrollment increased dUI!ng this time too; from 813 to 3,735, to be exact. But whereas there v;rere 509 books for each undergraduate in I 877, there were 1 1034 in 193 7. However 1 had the complexities inherent in a great collection of books offset the more liberal provision of material?' Both the Faculty and the students were aware of this problem and attempted in various ,vaysto meet it. These included, in the early part of the period under consideration, subscription libraries managed by the students, and reserved books; later, class-room and laboratory libraries; and finally, Widener's great reading room~ a. separatc library for freshmen, and the Ho use libraries4 No one of these ,vas ever the complete answ~, but during two thirds of the period the rnajn effort was directed towards the attainment of a single large reading roomt ,vhile it has been of recent years that the value of smru.ler,more stratcgica11yplaced libraries has been realized. Changing methods of instruction have been reflected in the library system; and through all the expedients,.the gropings, the heated cussions, real contributions to librarianship and to cducation have emerged. The modcr11conception of the relation of the college library to the undergraduate is generally credited to Justin l1/insor, who· becan1e Librarjan in 1877, after nine fruitful years a.shead of the Boston Public Library. But just as some· of Presidcn t Eliot"s ref onns were fore- shadowed during the administration of his predecessor1 Thomas Hill, so some of Winsor's were attempted nndcr Library Sib1ey,though not, . probably~ with his wholehearted consent4 The obstacles to the free i These .figures include all the Uni vcrsity Librariest for may use the Departmental Libraries, i£ nec~ary, and c11rdsfor these libraries appear in the • Union Ca.talogue at ,:Videner. I .22J _. Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) 122 Harvard Library Bulletin use of books by students from the building of the second 1--Iarvard Hall to the reciren1entof S1bleyhave been portrayed by the present Librarian in a preceding article. 2 One compensating factor, as he points out, was the 'society libraries of the students\ in 187 3, the last year they appear in the co1lege catalogue, they numbered 1 6,.000 vol- umes4 But these ,vere not avail-ableto a11students, no.r could they kec p up with current pub] ications. Acc~rdingly,. ·in r 872., the students or- ganized their own Rea.ding Room fusociation, designed to supply current newspapers and periodicals for the sum of tw'o dollru"'Sa year. The Harvard Advocate took up the cause; President Eliot agreed to allow the use of the lower floor of 1'.1assachusetts I-Ia114Four hundred subscriptions were raised, enough to furnish the room, to pay a. .sopho- more curator $~.fo a week, and to buy subscriptions tq a respectable numb er of newsp apersj including f orcign. But difficulties soon arose over persons who tried to use the room without subscribing. And after a ]apse in 1 879 and a reorganization in r 883) the Association dis• solved for good in 1884. 3 Presumably the newspapers ,vent to the CollegeLibrary. Another library open ~nly to subscribers ,vas that of the Harvard Union 1 established in 19or. That too finally was taken over by the U niversiry-; quite Iightl y, libraries-by-subs-cription were not to be the ans,ver to the problem of tbe student and the library. The introduction of the reserved book system, and of the n1et~ ods of teaching ,v-hichit implies,.was first undertaken by·Professors Henry Torrey nnd Henry Adatns of the History Department.. Vliiting 'in the Boston Evening Transcript of 5 Novcn1ber 1913.,'K.V.s4~ recalls: 'There came Torrey, watchful for his history a1covethat it be supplied with everything new and valuable.... It ,vashe who first took down the ''No admittance,, bars and opened his alcove for the free access of his students1 p1acingin it tables and chairs.,and making it attractive~that hls classes might love to live with the books and not merely· refer to them/ The conrribution of Hemy Adams to the ne,v methods of teaching is ,vell known; he describes it hirnself in the Education: 'Since • no textbooks existed, the professor refused to profess, knovling no more than his students, and they read ,vhat they pleased and com- • Keye."'D~ Metcalft 'The Undergradu~te and the Harvard Lihrary 1 r76;-1877/ Harvard Library Bulletin. 1 (1947)~ 29-51. 1 Notes on the new reading room a ppeaf in the Advocate for 21 Decetn be.r 1871,, 9 and 20 F ebrn ary and 2 .2 hf arch J 8 72~ The annu~l H arva-rd Index con rains lists of offi.ccr5 of the Assa ciation~ ,. Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) \ The Undergradffllte and the Harvard Library,'"1877-1.937 22 3 pared their ,results., 4 D issacisfiedwith conditions in the Library, Adams in 1875 addressed the f ollo,ving petition to the Corporation: Th~ Under-signed*Assistant Prof cssor of History, respectfully presents the following peti ti.on to the H onorab1e the Corporation of Harvard College. The Undersigned has the duty of instructing a number of students in the de- partment of Hjstory. He requires of them that each one shall use to the utmost possible extent the resources of the College Library. Without doing so, they cannot acquire the t;rniningwhich it is bis principal object to gi ~e them. As the Library js at present arranged it is impossible for th em to use it to proper advantage. The students req uirc room, e.specinlly ta ble-roo1n, which is not given them. The Undersigned respectfully represents that this j nconvenience is ,vholly unnecessary. One half the floor of the library is now occupied by show-casesi standst or other .fixrures)which do not necessarily belong there and which add nothing to the prop er usefulness of the institution. The Undersigned respectfully requests that these cases, &ct may be removed and that a long table may, so soon as the Honorable ·Corporation think proper, be substituted. If thls be done, the Undersigned believes that the students wUl have sufficjcnt accommodation for all their immediate wants. Respectfully presented Cambridge4 14 Deer. 187s /sf Henry Adams~ I The petition brought action, for Pr~ident Eliot., in his report for I 876-,7, states that the floor has been cleared and (is to be given up entirely to the accommodation of persons ,vho are consulting books.' Justin Winsor, himself a scho]ar., approved completely of the ne,v methods of teaching and the system of reserved books. An excellent statement of rusattitude is to be f oond in his preliminar)r report to President Eliot., for .1876-77: 'Books may be accumulated and guarded, and the result is sometimes called a library: but if books are made to help and spur men on in their o,vn daily work, the library becomes a vital influence; the prison is turned into a ,vorkshop4 ~'insor soon did away,. as he had already done at the Boston Public Library, with the calling in of books for annual examination and the closing of the Library for cleaning. He inaugurated a SJrstem of (Notes and Queries,' where~y questions could be posted, for anyone ,vith the requisite in- formation to answer. By 1 880 students were being admitted to the ' The Education of H e12ry A d~111s( Boston and New Y or~ 191 8), p- 3,0l 1 11;This petitlont with similar docum.ents quoted in thfa account, is preserved in the Harvard University Archives. Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) ... .. Harvard Library Bulletin : I stacks; tickets ,vcre given·for limited periods of time... Of his extension of the alcove and reserved book collections, he writes in his first com- plete report 1 for r 8 77-78: : I; The students can hand]e-this abso]ute contact with books js, in my .judg- ment, humanlzing - the newer books, as they stand on ~ertain shelves~ fo.r e. while after their accession; and alcoves~ with tables, ar~ also given to an ever- changing collection of books, designated by the several professors as -collaterel reading for th cir classes.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Office for the Arts and Office of Career Services Announce Inaugural Recipients of Artist Development Fellowships
    Office for the Arts and Office of Career Services Announce Inaugural Recipients of Artist Development Fellowships TWELVE UNDERGRADUATE ARTISTS FUNDED TO FURTHER ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT The Office for the Arts at Harvard (OFA) and Office of Career Services (OCS) are pleased to announce the 2006-07 recipients of the Artist Development Fellowship. This new program supports the artistic development of students demonstrating unusual accomplishment and/or evidence of significant artistic promise. 2007 Artist Development Fellowship Recipients Douglas Balliett ‘07 (Music concentrator, Kirkland House) Professional recording of original musical composition based on Homer’s Odyssey. Assistant principal and principal, double bass for the San Antonio Symphony (2004-present) . Tanglewood Music Center Fellow (summer 2005-06) . Studied composition with John Harbison (2003-04) . Plans to pursue a music career in performance and composition Damien Chazelle ’07-‘08 (VES concentrator, Currier House affiliate) Production of a black-and-white film musical combining the traditions of Hollywood studio era musicals and the French New Wave Cinema. Documentary and musical film credits: Kiwi, Poderistas, I Thought I Heard Him Say, and Mon Père . Internship: Miramax Studios (summer 2004) . Manager and drummer for professional jazz quartet The Rhythm Royales (spring 2001-summer 2003) . Plans to pursue a career in film upon graduation Jane Cheng ’09 (History of Art and Architecture concentrator, Lowell House) Production (design, print and binding) of a fine-press edition of a C.F. Ramuz passage. Cheng plans to submit the project to the National Guild of Bookworkers exhibit in 2008 as well as several other smaller juried exhibits. Articles featured in National Guild of Bookworkers Newsletter (January 2007), and Cincinnati Book Arts Society Newsletter -more- 1 OFA Artist Development Fellowship Recipients, page 2 .
    [Show full text]
  • Architecture Program Report for 2012 NAAB Visit for Continuing Accreditation
    Harvard Graduate School of Design Department of Architecture Architecture Program Report for 2012 NAAB Visit for Continuing Accreditation Master of Architecture Undergraduate degree outside of Architecture + 105 graduate credit hours Related pre-professional degree + 75 graduate credit hours Year of the Previous Visit: 2006 Current Term of Accreditation: At the July 2006 meeting of the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), the board reviewed the Visiting Team Report for the Harvard University Department of Architecture. As a result, the professional architecture program: Master of Architecture was formally granted a six-year term of accreditation. The accreditation term is effective January 1, 2006. The program is scheduled for its next accreditation visit in 2012. Submitted to: The National Architectural Accrediting Board Date: 14 September 2011 Harvard Graduate School of Design Architecture Program Report September 2011 Program Administrator: Jen Swartout Phone: 617.496.1234 Email: [email protected] Chief administrator for the academic unit in which the program is located (e.g., dean or department chair): Preston Scott Cohen, Chair, Department of Architecture Phone: 617.496.5826 Email: [email protected] Chief Academic Officer of the Institution: Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean Phone: 617.495.4364 Email: [email protected] President of the Institution: Drew Faust Phone: 617.495.1502 Email: [email protected] Individual submitting the Architecture Program Report: Mark Mulligan, Director, Master in Architecture Degree Program Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture Phone: 617.496.4412 Email: [email protected] Name of individual to whom questions should be directed: Jen Swartout, Program Coordinator Phone: 617.496.1234 Email: [email protected] 2 Harvard Graduate School of Design Architecture Program Report September 2011 Table of Contents Section Page Part One.
    [Show full text]
  • Songfest 2008 Book of Words
    A Book of Words Created and edited by David TriPPett SongFest 2008 A Book of Words The SongFest Book of Words , a visionary Project of Graham Johnson, will be inaugurated by SongFest in 2008. The Book will be both a handy resource for all those attending the master classes as well as a handsome memento of the summer's work. The texts of the songs Performed in classes and concerts, including those in English, will be Printed in the Book . Translations will be Provided for those not in English. Thumbnail sketches of Poets and translations for the Echoes of Musto in Lieder, Mélodie and English Song classes, comPiled and written by David TriPPett will enhance the Book . With this anthology of Poems, ParticiPants can gain so much more in listening to their colleagues and sharing mutually in the insights and interPretative ideas of the grouP. There will be no need for either ParticiPating singers or members of the audience to remain uninformed concerning what the songs are about. All attendees of the classes and concerts will have a significantly greater educational and musical exPerience by having word-by-word details of the texts at their fingertiPs. It is an exciting Project to begin building a comPrehensive database of SongFest song texts. SPecific rePertoire to be included will be chosen by Graham Johnson together with other faculty, and with regard to choices by the Performing fellows of SongFest 2008. All 2008 Performers’ names will be included in the Book . SongFest Book of Words devised by Graham Johnson Poet biograPhies by David TriPPett Programs researched and edited by John Steele Ritter SongFest 2008 Table of Contents Songfest 2008 Concerts .
    [Show full text]
  • Papers of John L. (Jack) Sweeney and Máire Macneill Sweeney LA52
    Papers of John L. (Jack) Sweeney and Máire MacNeill Sweeney LA52 Descriptive Catalogue UCD Archives School of History and Archives archives @ucd.ie www.ucd.ie/archives T + 353 1 716 7555 F + 353 1 716 1146 © 2007 University College Dublin. All rights reserved ii CONTENTS CONTEXT Biographical history iv Archival history v CONTENT AND STRUCTURE Scope and content v System of arrangement vi CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE Access xiv Language xiv Finding-aid xiv DESCRIPTION CONTROL Archivist’s note xiv ALLIED MATERIALS Allied Collections in UCD Archives xiv Related collections elsewhere xiv iii Biographical History John Lincoln ‘Jack’ Sweeney was a scholar, critic, art collector, and poet. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he attended university at Georgetown and Cambridge, where he studied with I.A. Richards, and Columbia, where he studied law. In 1942 he was appointed curator of Harvard Library’s Poetry Room (established in 1931 and specialising in twentieth century poetry in English); curator of the Farnsworth Room in 1945; and Subject Specialist in English Literature in 1947. Stratis Haviaras writes in The Harvard Librarian that ‘Though five other curators preceded him, Jack Sweeney is considered the Father of the Poetry Room …’. 1 He oversaw the Poetry Room’s move to the Lamont Library, ‘establishing its philosophy and its role within the library system and the University; and he endowed it with an international reputation’.2 He also lectured in General Education and English at Harvard. He was the brother of art critic and museum director, James Johnson Sweeney (Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R.
    [Show full text]
  • News Briefs of Higher Education, Mark G
    tic inquiry, yet student members do make Clockwise from top right: sure that the publication comes out four the Advocate’s editors in 1869; the December 1967 times a year, despite the vagaries of under- cover, by Taite S. Walkonen graduate life and the magazine’s seemingly ’69; editors playing to the constant money problems. “It’s kind of an camera circa 1900-1910; organizational miracle the way people were the September 1950 cover, by Edward St. J. Gorey ’50 delegated to do things like tutor [other stu- dents through the comp process] and make students comping the fiction decisions,” says Jacobs. board had to read Hindsight may, of course, give student “They Ride Us,” work a polish it actually lacked. My friend a story written the writer and translator Jessica Sequeira ’11 “by a mythical fig- recently forwarded to me responses to the ure, Caleb Crain, many query letters she sent as a features- which just seemed board editor seeking contributions from like a pseudonym.” established writers. “Dear Jessica, Do you When he moved mean November 19 2010? That is eleven days to New York lat- from now. It takes me months to think of er on, Greif said, things. All the best, Colm [Toibin].” “I went to a par- Yet Mark Greif ’97 found professional im- ty at The Nation, plications in the characteristic impractical- where there was a ity of fellow Advocate members. “The fact of bespectacled person sitting on a banquette. of debauchery.” Yet having other people around you who are Someone said, ‘Have you met Caleb?’ ” I said the 150th celebra- preparing for that particular life, with all of ‘Not Caleb Crain! Author of “They Ride Us!” ’ ” tion ended almost calmly, until in their or- its ups and downs and sacrifices and glories, (“For a while I worried that I had peaked ear- derly departure, too many guests crowded even while at other parts of Harvard peo- ly and that that [story] was going to be my into the elevator and broke it.
    [Show full text]
  • Connecticut College News Vol. 31 No.12
    Connecticut College Digital Commons @ Connecticut College 1945-1946 Student Newspapers 2-20-1946 Connecticut College News Vol. 31 No.12 Connecticut College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/ccnews_1945_1946 Recommended Citation Connecticut College, "Connecticut College News Vol. 31 No.12" (1946). 1945-1946. 2. https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/ccnews_1945_1946/2 This Newspaper is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Newspapers at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has been accepted for inclusion in 1945-1946 by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author. ONNECTleDT 5e per copy New London, Connecticut, Wednesday, February 20, 1946 , ;;;;1,31-1"0, 12 Arthur Schlesinger To Give NominatingMethodMardi Gras to Highlight Big Lawrence Lecture on Feb. 26 GivenFor Benefit Mid-winter Weekend Feb. 23 Square Dancing, Food Lecture Will Concern Of OfficeSeekers Report Cards Should And Badminton Are in Trends in Democracy Although the eJectlon proce- dure is well on Ihe road 10 com- Be Returned at Once Plans of AA and CCOC In Two Recent Eras pletion, three days remain in Students are reminded that which to take out the following their report slips should be The subject of the second Hen- petitions: Speaker of the House returned to the registrar's of- The annual Connecticut college Wells Lawrence memorial lee- on Thursday, February 21; Vice fiee promptly, as the same Mid-winter weekend, scheduled ~ president of Student government slips are used for the June for February 23 and 24, will be ~re, to be delivered by Arthur M.
    [Show full text]
  • Faculty of Arts and Sciences 2018–2019 Student Prize Recipients
    Faculty of Arts and Sciences 2018–2019 Student Prize Recipients Cyrilly Abels Short Story Prize … awarded by the Department of English for the best short story written by an undergraduate during the academic year. • to Sabrina Helen Li, class of 2020, for her project entitled “Daughters’ Bodies” • to Iriowen Ojo, class of 2019, for her project entitled “Modern Love” Matthew Abramson Prize for Best Senior Thesis in Fine Arts … for the best senior honors thesis in the Department of History of Art and Architecture. • to Yael Margalit Saiger, class of 2019, for her project entitled “Creating Marble, Chasing Divinity: Depictions of Marble in Fifteenth-Century Italian Panel Painting” Academy of American Poets Prize … for the best poem or group of poems written by an undergraduate (offered through the Department of English). • to Sarah Lynn Toomey, class of 2019/20, for her project entitled “My Question Is the Following” George Plimpton Adams Prize … for the best senior honors thesis or doctoral dissertation on a subject designated by the Department of Philosophy, preferably in the field of history of philosophy. • to James Franklin Bondarchuk, Ph.D. ’18, for his project entitled “Self-Consciousness in Kant’s Moral Philosophy” Ana Aguado Prize for Best Doctoral Student Paper … awarded by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program for the best doctoral paper addressing topics in environmental, energy, and natural-resource economics. • to Daniel Velez-Lopez, Ph.D. ’19, a prize of $2,000 for his project entitled “The Effectiveness and Distribution of Short-Run Pollution Policies: An Evaluation of Mexico City’s Environmental Contingencia” Albert Alcalay Prize … to the best undergraduate student enrolled in workshop studios in the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies.
    [Show full text]
  • The Soda Fountain
    Health, Luxury, or Vice? An Objects-Based Exploration of the 1894 Cambridge Drug Store Crisis Before you proceed, read the sections entitled “Preface,” “Learning Objectives,” “Lesson Outline,” and “Preparation” in the document that accompanies this slideshow. These are three objects from the late nineteenth century that were excavated from Harvard Yard. Take a moment to examine them. What do you think each object is? What features stand out to you? The Jacob Pipe “J.H. Hubbard’s Column,” Harvard Advocate, December 20, 1867, 96. Maison Gambier, Catalogue 1894 Vve Hasslauer de Champeaux & Quentin successeurs, 1894, 4, 12, 20, 28, 29. What do you think this object is? What features stand out to you? This is a pipe bowl fragment, probably produced by Maison Gambier, a French pipemaker that produced an estimated two billion clay pipes between 1850 and 1926. Their most famous pipe design was the “Jacob,” a representation of a Turkish man. Jacob was a hot commodity at Harvard, as shown by advertisements in the Harvard Advocate. The Soda Fountain “J.H. Hubbard’s Column,” Harvard Advocate, July 6, 1867, 144. “J.H. Hubbard’s Column,” Harvard Advocate, June 21, 1872, 160. Boston Daily Globe, September 9, 1893, 4. What do you think this object is? What features stand out to you? This bottle is possibly a small container of Bromo-Seltzer, a popular tonic marketed as a headache remedy and sold in several Harvard Square drug stores in the late nineteenth century. Local druggists like J.H. Hubbard advertised their soda fountains as “the best soda in the country.” For this exercise, we’ll use the bottle to represent soda and soda fountains.
    [Show full text]
  • Making Art at Harvard (In a Pandemic)!
    Making Art at Harvard (in a Pandemic)! Want to make art? Reach out to one of these staff members or student organizations to help you find your way! For a comprehensive list of all the creative writing, dance, drama and music co-curricular organizations active this semester, visit TheHub@HarvardCollege. The Office for the Arts at Harvard General Inquiries, Funding, Administrative Support, Guest Artists, Free Workshops, Advocacy, and all around one-stop shopping. Jack Megan, Director Alicia Anstead, Associate Director of Programs Creative Writing Curricular: Darcy Frey, Director of Creative Writing, English Department Lauren Bimmler, Undergraduate Program Administrator, English Department Co-curricular: The Harvard Advocate The Harvard Crimson The Harvard Lampoon Academic Study: Poetry reading/events, Christina Davis, Curator, Woodbury Poetry Room Literary Publications: Chloe Garcia Roberts, Managing Editor, Harvard Review Dance Curricular: Kirsten Leonard, Administrative Manager, Harvard Dance Center Elizabeth Epsen, Communications and Programs Manager, Harvard Dance Center Co-curricular: Harvard Ballet Company Harvard-Radcliffe Modern Dance Company Ghungroo (South Asian Association) Drama Curricular Courses: Debra Levine, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Theater, Dance & Media Curricular Productions (including Design and Tech): James Stanley, Producing Artistic Director, Theater, Dance & Media Co-curricular: (Artistic, Administrative, Design, & Tech): Dana Knox, Production Coordinator for College Theater, Office for the Arts Harvard
    [Show full text]
  • Mise En Scène Open Floor Space
    THE UNDERGRADUATE gans to which the room had borne witness. Sophomore year, I lived in a shiny one-room double in newly renovated Dunster House: two desks, two dress- by lily scherlis ’18 ers, two beds. Ten square feet of Mise en Scène open floor space. It was pristine, but it was also sterile. I felt like I professor once advised me that tion: I could relocate to another city was living in a hotel or a hospital. I shouldn’t have possessions un- at the drop of a hat. At this stage of our You get used to being stared at til I have tenure. “Then,” he said, lives, we should always be ready to move, by the tour groups in the Yard, “you can start to collect books.” I am told, and since I moved to boarding but when you live in a space that AI’ve given away so many of my books over school at age 14 I’ve used mobility as the exists as a model for donors you start to feel the years. The Harvard Advocate’s library gets cornerstone of my identity as an indepen- like a part of the furniture. You have a bed replenished every spring because students dent young thing. for sleeping and a dining hall for eating and a don’t want to pay to store their labored-over Letting go of this freedom has been an shower for getting clean. The space in which coursebooks. This year, to fill my five-tier adventure in commitment; I am beginning you dwell was built to satisfy, and to do so Ikea bookshelf, I rented a Zipcar and drove to come around to the idea of having things.
    [Show full text]
  • Commercialized Intercollegiate Athletics and the 1903 Harvard Stadium Author(S): Ronald A
    Commercialized Intercollegiate Athletics and the 1903 Harvard Stadium Author(s): Ronald A. Smith Source: The New England Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Mar., 2005), pp. 26-48 Published by: The New England Quarterly, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1559707 . Accessed: 05/11/2013 20:50 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The New England Quarterly, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The New England Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 35.8.11.3 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 20:50:16 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CommercializedIntercollegiate Athletics and the 1903 HarvardStadium RONALD A. SMITH a fewyears after the War betweenthe Stateswas JUSTconcluded, the newly installed president of Harvard College threwdown the gauntlet,a gesturehe lived to regret.In his 1869 inauguraladdress, Charles W. Eliot called on the college to excelin sports."There is an aristocracy,"Eliot toldhis audi- ence, "to which sons of Harvardhave belonged,and let us hope, will ever aspireto belong-the aristocracywhich excels in manlysports."' Among those manlysports, Eliot did not mean to includefootball, an activitythe facultyhad bannedin 186o.
    [Show full text]
  • E. E. Cummings: a Surprising Spenserian
    E. E. Cummings: A Surprising Spenserian William Blissett In 1954, a large number of poets in mid- or late career received a letter reminding them that Edmund Spenser had long been acclaimed as “the po- ets’ poet” and asking them if they still read and admired Spenser. For all but a few Canadian recipients, the sender’s name (my own) would be strange, as well as the place of origin exotic—Saskatoon, the university city of the province of Saskatchewan. Well over half replied. I attribute this to the inherent interest of the enquiry and to the kindly disposition of poets. I uncovered no major Spenserians to continue the grand tradition of Milton, Wordsworth, Keats, and Yeats, for whom Spenser was indeed the poets’ poet for a crucial period, if not for a lifetime, but I did find many for whom Spenser counted to a limited but definable degree. I set myself the task of reading the complete published works and the major criticism of each of my poet-correspondents. This ruinous resolve accounts for half a century’s delay in advancing my project. In diligently looking for traces of Spenser, I also imposed on myself an equally difficult self-denying ordinance—not to squeeze until the pips squeaked. Four of the American correspondents—lifelong poets, prolific, widely recognized, and (rare then, increasingly rare since) outside the academic community, surprised me by acknowledging an awareness of Spenser amounting to engagement. These were Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and E. E. Cummings.1 Intrigued for a moment by my approach, the first impulse of these four must have been to say something not patently untrue to this far-away enthu- siast—some small thing, not deeply pondered, but good enough to set down and sign.
    [Show full text]